Vitola: Robusto- 5.5″ x 50 ring gauge
- MSRP $7.49
- Provided by Company
Background
Partagas is a stalwart brand in the General Cigar catalog, with long-standing fans of the Partagas Red and Black label variants, in addition to the new adherents that have come about through such additions as the Benji Mendendez Signature and Heritage 1845. This year General added another release to the brand, this time straddling the line between honoring the brand’s past and trying to appeal to today’s younger leaf enthusiasts.
Ramón y Ramón is “a collection encompassing rare tobaccos and vintage seeds from a time when Cuban cigar legend Ramón Cifuentes oversaw tobacco growing for the brand.” General is working to regenerate seeds from varietals long-gone and uses one of them…an “old-world Dominican tobacco”…for this project. They paired that Dominican leaf with some Nicaraguan Jalapa and Dominican Piloto Cubano in the filler, a Dominican binder, and a Cameroon wrapper from the Belita region.
Ramón y Ramón is intended to be sold exclusively at brick and mortar cigar shops. It comes in 4 sizes. I was given some Robustos by General for this review. I’ve smoked a couple of them before I got to this review sample.
Prelight
The look of the band and box of the Ramón y Ramón very much evokes the “old school” sensibilities with the lavish use of gold foil on white, along with just a bit of red type. It definitely has the traditional look much more than the sideways bands on the Heritage 1845 series did. The only “miss” they had on this was having “Flor de Tabacos” on the arch above the company name…I predict this cigar will get called that more often than it’s called Ramón y Ramón.
The wrapper definitely has a “Cameroon” look to it, with an odd, almost grayish cast on the dark caramel coloration. It felt oily under the fingertips and had a slightly astringent hay and cedar aroma to it. The foot had an earthier note to it, along with touches of natural tobacco and cocoa powder.
The prelight draw was good and had flavors of honey and red pepper, over earth and cedar.
Flavor
Once fired up, the Partagas Ramón y Ramón had a strong cedar flavor right off the bat. Layered under that was some citrus and honey sweetness and chili pepper; the finish was lightly earthy. As I’ve come to expect from Cameroon wrapper, the retrohale was sharply peppery…almost a wasabi heat and intensity, although it was relatively short in duration. Pepper notes rose up on the palate within a few minutes, becoming dominant, but along with that was a creamy coffee note that wasn’t there before. As I got near to the end of the first third, the profile had settled into creamy coffee, roasted nuts, and muted pepper and honey notes on the palate, along with a weakened pepper and nuttiness on the nose.
The second third continued much the same, with the sweeter honey notes coming a little more to the forefront and pepper dying off a little more in the process.
During the last third, the earthier notes of the Nicaraguan tobacco showed themselves more than before, with the honey fading out and the pepper just hanging around as a low burn.
Construction
I saw a very even burn line, perfect draw, and solid ash during my smoking time.
Value
As with most General releases, this cigar is priced very fairly for the experience it brings.
Conclusions
While the Partagas Ramón y Ramón wasn’t the most complex and flavorful cigar I’ve had recently, it was a very good example of Cameroon wrapper that had a good amount of sweetness and pepper in the mix, along with the earthiness of the Nicaraguan leaf used. All in all, a good solid smoke for a fair price. I’d definitely give it a recommendation to fans of medium-bodied smokes with Cameroon wrappers.
By-The-Numbers
Prelight: 2/2
Construction: 2/2
Flavor: 3.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
